Sunshine State Eggfest 2016

Wow, it has been a busy month and I am so behind on posting.  Let's play catch up.

Last month, I attended the Sunshine State Eggfest in Cape Canveral/Cocoa Beach, Florida.  Here are the key players in an Eggfest.

• Organizer(s) - This is the person or entity that actually coordinates everything from marketing, logistics, charity partners, etc.  Lots of work, no pay, and little sleep.
• Dealer - the local Egg dealer or regional distributor that provides all of the Big Green Eggs (anywhere from 20 to 100) and typically is selling accessories on site.  The Eggs are new and used that day only, then sold off as "demo Eggs" at substantial discounts.  The vast majority of these are sold the day of the event if not already pre-sold.
• Cooks (cook teams) - Small groups of volunteers typically consisting of Big Green Egg fans, local restaurants, and civic groups.  These teams bring food at their own expense and cook various recipes for samples to serve to Tasters.
• Tasters - Guests who buy tickets to sample the food being served by the cook teams.
• Celebrity Appearances - Bigger events try to have guest appearances by "Egg celebrities". They might teach a class, judge entries, or do a book signing.  This includes people like Dr. BBQ, Linkie Marais, and Moe Cason as well as "internet celebrities" like Big Green Craig and myself.  

For this event, I was on a cook team headed up by my sister.  I wasn't sure she was going to make it because she was feeling under the weather big time but she rallied for the event.  Also on our team were both of her next door neighbors - Ed and Laurie and Cade and Amanda.  Rounding out the team were two of my great friends from back in the day - Carson and Scott.  

Here is the photo dump....

My BGE Mini-Max road shotgun on the way down to Florida.  As far as a riding partner goes, he wasn't a great conversationalist but at least he didn't try to change the radio channel.

Made a brief stop in Jax to pick up my surfboards.

Next stop - Eggfest! 

The dealer for this Eggfest is Wassi's Meat Market.  Here they are setting up their sales area.

This is a typical price at an Eggfest and a good price.

Wassi's brought not only their own stuff and staff, but also brought in representatives from suppliers such as Ceramic Grill Store, Kick Ash Basket, and Flame Boss.

Cook Team Captains Meeting is where the organizer covers the schedule and any event specific issues.

One of our "fake friends" (this is what we call our Facebook friends in a group that I'm in - fantastic group of people) made our team this amazing wood sign - there is no stain, that is all different colors of wood.

Eggfest site the day before.  Looks rather calm now but at 8am it will be crazy.

Big Green Craig and I ready to go surfing with our new friend.

I like getting into Eggfests early so we can socialize with folks like Chad from Kick Ash Basket.  And yes, by "socialize" I mean drink by the pool.  

Like mushrooms the morning after a rain, canopies popped up out of nowhere and the event was on.

We were set up in a GREAT section next to some of our friends.

Ruh-roh....threatening clouds acted showed up but fortunately, they stayed away.

Our menu for the Eggfest.  We made the beer bread with cream cheese in the morning but we did the potatoes and pickles all day long....and I do mean ALL.DAY. LONG.

We coated red bliss potatoes in oil and seasoned with salt then roasted them at 400°f for about 45 minutes in the XL BGE.  Then we scooped out the pulp and mixed it with cheese and rub.  This pic is from a batch we did at home when we were testing.

Then we stuffed some green chile smoked pork into the potato, a dab of sweet BBQ sauce, and piped the potato mixture back on top of that.  We roast that on the Egg until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes at 350°f.  We topped with with chipotle sour cream (1 cup sour cream, 1 seeded chipotle diced, and a pinch each of salt, pepper, and Albukirky's green chile rub) and more sweet BBQ sauce.  These were pretty awesome.  

The Jordan's Drunk Pickle is based on a dish Rhonda had at Frozen Fest up in Wisconsin during February.  It is essentially a Cubano (Cuban sandwich) stuffed inside a pickle.

The idea seemed a little out there to me and I wasn't sure how it would be received but we couldn't make these things fast enough for the crowd.  We had food going out all day long and as soon as we would plate these, they would be gone.

Our little corner of the Eggfest.  We had an XL and two larges to use.  I outfitted the two larges with Adjustable Rigs to double our capacity.

Chad from Kick Ash Basket stopped by before the crowds rushed in.

Marcia Simmons and crew were our neighbors to the right.  Marcia is a fabulous Egger and does training classes and catering.  She knows her stuff.

Scott and Carson working on making the pickles.  

Amanda and Cade coring pickles.  We went through 9 or 10 gallons of pickles for this.

Scott, Carson, and Laurie hammering away in our "kitchen".  Everyone on our team kicked butt for this contest.  No one slacked off.

Our neighbors to our left were also well known Eggers - Kristi (Necessary Indulgences) and Pat (FlaPoolman).  They made some mouth watering Scotch eggs and some buffalo chicken wontons that were crazy good.

The crowds started off modestly for the first 45 minutes or so but that wouldn't last.

Laurie piping the cheesy mashed potato mixture into the shells.

Carson doing a little quality control.

Rhonda and Cade slicing the sage and cheddar beer bread.  

After the first hours, the lines pretty much never stopped.

Laurie dressing the potatoes for serving.

Our back area was where we did all of the prep work...in the shade!

Rhonda checking on the bread.

Yours truly putting more potatoes on one of the large BGE.  The adjustable rigs helped us double our capacity and keep putting food out about every 10-15 minutes by staggering when we put food on the grill.

Our crowded little corner.

I think there was something like 50 teams but I don't have an official count.  But there were lots of teams putting out good food for the crowds.

The weather actually stayed nice all day after several lines of storms the previous night.

Janet and Michael from Flame Boss were on the scene, giving out great food and demonstrating how their Flame Boss maintains a superior fire with a steady air flow.

Our friend, Big Green Craig, gave a class on wok grilling (what I call "stir firing") to a good crowd.

No matter where you looked, someone was cooking on a Big Green Egg.

The different teams produced a splendid variety of recipes.  That's one thing that I like better about Eggfests - everyone isn't cooking the same chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket.  

More lines....did I mention the lines?

The Queen of Green team put out some great Cuban sandwiches.

Cade, Rhonda, and Carson getting more Jordan's Drunk Pickles reading for the waiting crowds.  People kept coming up asking if we were the "pickle people".

Clayton and Marcia served a wide range of recipes, I lost count of how many they did.  

Rhonda and Carson plating more potatoes for our fans.

Cade serving up more taters.  

Marcia starting another dessert.  That spiced rum she is pouring may or may not have been also used for shots for the cooks in our corner.  

More lines.  Always more lines.

The afternoon was pretty crowded.

At the end of the day we had a few celebratory shots.  Bro's forever! ;)

Whew!  We were so glad when it was time to shut down the Eggs and stop serving.  At best count, we gave out approximately 1,000 samples. We planned for 300, doubled that and then had to run to the store for more.

I think my favorite part was the "after party" that started with just 4 of us and a pair of Mini-Maxes. Before you knew it, we had a big group of everyone digging in the coolers and cooking anything they had left over.  

What a great weekend spent with friends and family!  Even if you've never seen a Big Green Egg, if you have an Eggfest in your area, you should check it out for some great food and fun.

Coming up next I'll post about our weekend at Memphis in May and our KCBS BBQ contest in Sevierville.